


Something New

by EmrysTheMerlin



Series: The Heart of A Hero [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon 2012)
Genre: BAMF Peter Parker, F/M, Fem Peter Parker - Freeform, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Little brother Vision, Obsessed Peter Parker, Protective Harry Osborn, Superfamily (Marvel), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2020-12-17 01:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21045863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmrysTheMerlin/pseuds/EmrysTheMerlin
Summary: Graduating high school is hardly the greatest leap for Piper Parker and her friends but it marks the end of an era. Being a team of heroes becomes more difficult as they all scatter into their new adult lives. But all is not well. Piper's obsession with her vision from Kamar Taj is cutting into the rest of her life. Then an old threat reemerges and brings Piper on a journey she will have to face alone. Can the others survive the events to come or will they lose something, or someone, precious?





	1. First Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so there is some implied sexual content here. Don't ask me to write it explicitly I won't. But everyone is consenting here so yeah. You've been warned.

“Hello, Midtown High graduating class. We made it. I know it didn’t seem like we would a few times these past few years. Between supervillain attacks and finals there were times we thought we would fail, but we made it.” Piper Parker smiled at the crowd of blue graduation robes and hats in front of her. She stood behind a podium smiling out at her class. There were several cheers from her classmates. She took a deep breath and continued. 

“High school is a trial, it will always be one. But it is a trail that we have endured. Some of us will go on to be scientists, journalists, photographers, artists, philosophers, we will shape the years to come. We are the next generation of heroes, even without the spandex.” There was a mummer of laughter through the crowd. 

“These days to come will shape the future. We will shape it, so I hope you all remember something a great man once told me that has always stuck with me. With great power comes great responsibility. We are responsible for the future, it will be what we make it. We must use that power for good. So, let’s go change the world!” The cheer was resounding as Piper stepped away from the podium adjusting her stole slightly as she stepped back to her seat. Her eyes met Harry’s over the crowd and he shot her the thumbs up. She grinned. Glancing over the crowd she spotted Pepper recording from one of the balcony seats. She smiled slightly as the principal, Coulson’s replacement when he’d disappeared after SHEILD was dumped all over the internet, introduced their guest speaker and her father stood and sauntered to the podium. He waved as camera’s flashed. 

“I promise I’m not just here because my daughter goes here.” He winked at the crowd and Piper rolled her eyes shaking her head. “No I’m here because you are the future, and that future has never been brighter. As your valedictorian stated you have the power to shape the world.” Piper had heard this speech half a dozen times since her father had accepted the invitation to come speak at her graduation. She rubbed her neck slightly. The scars there still itched sometimes. But it had been nearly five months since the Ultron fiasco and she’d been unable to do anything about the scar her evil AI brother had given her. They’d managed to explain it away only because no one had seen Spidergirl nearly get her head taken off by the robot. She refocused as the applause from the end of her father’s speech reached her ears. Soon everyone was receiving their diploma’s, walking across the stage and shaking hands with the principle and her father. He clapped her on the back as she shook his hand feeling a little silly. Then they were switching their tassels and throwing their hats into the air. Piper couldn’t help but join in the cheering as she caught her hat on its way back down. 

Soon she was outside the stadium Midtown had rented for graduation, with her friends. Looking back she would never have expected this to be the group she celebrated graduating with. Well that wasn’t entirely true. Harry and MJ she’d always known she would be celebrating with but if someone had told her just a year ago that Flash Thompson would be high fiving her and ruffling her hair as they cheered their freedom from public education she would have laughed in their faces. If someone had told her in her freshman year of high school that she would have a tightly knit superhero team around her for graduation she would have assumed they were talking about the Avengers, not a team of her own. Ava was grinning slightly as they posed for pictures. Danny had thrown up a peace sign, Sam was holding up his diploma a gigantic grin on his face as his mother took pictures of the group. Luke looked a touch melancholy but grinned as they initiated a group hug. Harry lifted Piper off the ground and spun her as they laughed, her cap going flying. MJ leaned on Eddie a satisfied smile on her face. 

“Always knew you two would end up together before we graduated.” Piper laughed as she grabbed Harry’s face and kissed him full on the mouth as Flash wolf whistled. Glen grinned at them from his spot at the back of the group. Pepper smiled at the lot of them as they all began to pile into the back of a stretch limo. Tony had rented it for them, along with reservations at a very upscale restaurant to celebrate afterwards. It turned out he’d rented out the whole restaurant, which was not wholly unexpected. They laughed and joked and ate as the afternoon changed to evening. 

Each of them was talking about their plans now. Flash was going to Queens College on a full football scholarship. Harry and Piper had both been accepted to Berkley, Harry was going for his MBA and Piper was going for her MBA and a Major in microbiology. MJ was going to Queens College too, for a major in journalism. Ava was headed to the CUNY School of Medicine, she’d taken an interest in learning from Dr. Cho. Danny was heading to Columbia to study philosophy. Sam and Luke had decided to take a year off to explore their options, and stick with their hero work, though not everyone in the room knew that. Piper raised her glass. 

“To the future!” The others cheered and clinked their glasses together.

“To the future!” The party stretched on for several hours but eventually they separated. Harry and Piper slipped off away from Happy and caught a cab to Harry’s apartment. A few acrobatic hours later they lay together laughing in Harry’s room both covered in sweat and extremely happy. Harry wrapped his arm around her and smiled down at her. 

“Do you think it’ll last?” Piper raised an eyebrow at him.

“What do you mean?” He shrugged. 

“This peace. I mean I know crime never stops, but there haven’t been any big threats since Ultron.” He reached up and gently ran his hand over the scars on her neck. “Do you think it’ll last?” Piper sat up and shrugged as she hopped out of the bed and pulled her dress back on. Harry watched her a frown on his face. 

“I don’t know Har.” He stood and searched for a minute before he found his boxers and pulled them back on. 

“I’m sorry I ruined the mood didn’t I?” Piper laughed lightly, but there wasn’t much humor in it. She pulled him down for another kiss and walked out of his room and into the workshop he’d converted his father’s office into. He frowned as the sounds of tinkering met his ears. She got distracted so easily by talk of the future these days. Ever since she’d had those visions in the pool at Kamar Taj. She would work through the night when she got like this and only her duties as Spidey could pull her out of it. He’d talked to Danny about it but even he hadn’t had any solid answers. 

All he could say was that whatever she’d been in contact with had been strong enough for him to only be able to describe it as a deity. Harry had been beyond confused by that, but Danny had assured him that many deities from different religions and even some not recognized on Earth were real. It kind of made his head spin if he was honest. She talked in her sleep too. Always mumbling about a device. She kept saying she had to finish it soon but she never seemed satisfied with it. He’d seen her scrap whatever it was three times in the past five months. Even her father couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was doing. Harry silently stepped over to the work room on bare feet. Piper was standing at the Holo-table the 3D schematic in front of her slowly rotating. 

“Karen give me an exploded view.” The device separated into its component parts. When it was all put together it looked a lot like her webshooters but much more complex. She frowned and zoomed in on part of the device. She glared at it like it was the core of Ultron himself. He leaned in the doorway for a while watching her tinker with her schematics. They both jumped when a red figure phased through the wall. Piper rolled her eyes.

“Vis! We talked about doors! Doors are an important part of human society.” Vision nodded. If Harry was honest the robot made him a little nervous. But Piper treated him like a younger brother. He looked them over and raised a nonexistent eyebrow. Piper blushed bright red, realizing that she was wearing nothing but her dress, her hair a tangled mess and that Harry was still in just his boxers. 

“Don’t tell dad.” Vision frowned slightly. 

“From what I understand this is completely natural behavior for people your age.” She slapped a hand over his mouth before he could continue. 

“Don’t tell dad!” Vision nodded slightly. Piper removed her hand. “What are you doing her Vis?” 

“Tony says he wants to talk to you.” Piper rolled her eyes and saved her work before she stomped out of the room looking for her shoes and graduation gown.


	2. Prepared

As it turned out Tony had put the call out to everyone. He was in full Iron Man armor when they all arrived and Harry stayed slightly behind Piper. He’d admit to being afraid of her father he wouldn’t even be ashamed of it. Iron man was scary. But so was the news he had for them.

“We’ve had sightings of the Goblin.” Everyone in the room went stiff. They’d finally sat Flash and Harry down and explained the whole story behind the Goblin. There had been many tears between Harry and Piper but they had all agreed that they had to find a way to cure him, a way to stop him. But to do any of that they needed a DNA sample from him now and so far he hadn’t been seen since Carnage. They’d been hoping he would pop up again soon but none of them were sure how they were going to handle it. Piper stiffened. Harry took a deep breath. Tony continued. 

“We’ve had two sightings. The Avengers are going to take the first one, you are going to take the second.” The team nodded and split to get into costume. Before Piper could follow them Tony grabbed her hand and pressed a device into it. It was shaped like a spider, about the size of her palm. 

“Put that where your spidey symbol normally sits and tap it.” Raising an eyebrow Piper did as she was told. She gasped as the spider seemed to melt outwards in a cascade of gold, red and blue. She stared as it covered her arms and legs spreading until it was her full spidersuit, complete with mask. Karen’s familiar voice greeted her as the display came into view and her father smiled at her. 

“The nanotech is done?” Tony nodded. 

“Well mostly. It’s not everything I wanted it to be, I wanted it to have the claw arms coming out of the back but I didn’t have time on this model. You should be able to stick through it though. Give it a try. Piper walked up the wall with ease. 

“Dad this is fantastic!” He grinned and gestured her back to the floor. 

“There’s a few other things too. There’s a few pockets on the belt. Solar paneling that can be flipped in and out to power the suit.” He pressed one of the panels between the distinctive black and gold webbing. It flipped revealing a small solar panel. “An arc reactor would be too conspicuous. So this will do.” He pushed another panel and revealed carefully folded bills. “Emergency money. And of course Karen is connected to the suit but there’s something else.” He took her hand and tapped the panel that sat directly above the vein in her wrist.

“Built in webshooters and that device you’ve been working on. I know you didn’t want me to but I took a look at it anyway and well.” He pushed the panel next to the web shooter and the paneling around the rest of the wrist retracted revealing the device. “I’m still not sure what it does but it works to what your notes said.” Piper nodded. It felt right, like the piece she’d been missing for the last five months had slotted into place. She pulled her father into a bone crushing hug. He returned it immediately and the two inventors held on to one another for a moment. Piper didn’t know why but if felt like it was the last time she was going to get to hold him for a long time. She’d felt something similar earlier with Harry. The feeling scared her like nothing else. It was like her spidey sense but not quite the same. She was glad that her mask hid her tears for the moment as she pulled back from him. 

“Thanks dad.” He nodded and smiled at her. 

“Be careful out there ok Piper?” She nodded. 

“When am I not careful?” He scoffed slightly and looked like he was going to hug her again but a beep from his helmet dragged his attention away from her. He nodded. 

“I’m on my way Natasha!” He took off out of one of the windows.” Piper sighed shakily and spoke. 

“Karen download all preferences from the home database. Include my playlists would you?” 

“Of course Piper.” She took a deep breath and headed off to meet up with the rest of the team.


	3. The End

None of them could have been prepared for what the Goblin had in store for them. He had let himself be seen in an attempt to split the team, which luckily since they had the Avengers on their side hadn’t worked. The location the Avengers were currently covering had a chemical bomb set to go off and contaminate the city water supply, turning every citizen of New York into creatures like the Goblin but if Piper was honest that seemed preferable to the second device. It wasn’t a bomb though if it was set off it would be even more catastrophic. She could only describe it as a miniaturized super collider. 

“If you have a chemical bomb why do you need a tiny super collider!” She asked as she swung around the Goblin trying to get to the controls of the collider which had risen out of the sewer system under the street just a few blocks away from Stark Tower. There was chaos all around them. People were running, the police were trying to evacuate the area with the help of Nova and Hobgoblin, as they were the fastest of the group. Piper of course being the smartest was trying to shut the damn thing off as the others fought the Goblin directly. He cackled. 

“Planning Spidergirl! You and your little friends have foiled me one too many times! You’ll only be able to stop one of the two devices! So you get to decide, does New York get sucked into a black hole or do you finally allow everyone to evolve like you and I!?” Piper rolled her eyes as she finally managed to reach the controls. Her fingers flew across them as the sound of fighting increased behind her. 

Across town Tony Stark was panicking. This all was too close to a dream he kept having, one that ended in the shattering of his whole world. The chemical bomb was complex, he and Natasha were working on defusing it. He wished Bruce was here, but no one had seen him since he, as the Hulk, had flown off in the Quin Jet in Sokovia. Thor was off world. He was supposed to be retiring, in part to avoid the dream coming true. But he couldn’t help the feeling of dread that filled his heart. He had prepared her like the voice had told him but would it be enough to save her?

Goblin was losing the fight and he seemed to know it. At least if the blast of lightning he shot at Spidey was any indication. She managed to dodge but the panel in front of her was destroyed and the collider sparked to life, pluming with bright blue electricity. Screams filled the street as the few remaining people ran for cover as lightning blasted around them striking objects at random, they turned blue and shattered into light particles where the lightning touched them. The Goblin cackled loudly as Piper leapt out of the way of an arch of lightning. 

“I need to shut this off at the power source!” She wasn’t even sure that would work. The device might be self-sustaining with all the juice the Goblin had just given it. There were protests from the others as they dodged the arching lightning. But she couldn’t just not try. She had to do something. She leapt around and into the device, relying on her spidey sense to help her dodge the lightning, even as it tore at the nanobots that made up her suit, tearing holes in the material.

Tony finished defusing the bomb just as they got the call. The super collider the Goblin had made was online, sending off lightning that was disintegrating anything it touched and Piper had just leapt into it to try and turn it off. He took off without even stopping to say anything to his own team. It couldn’t be, he wasn’t going to let it be true. 

Ripping apart the power source was easier than Piper had thought it would be, even though she was dodging lighting left and right. She leapt away from the device as the lightning began to slow and the Goblin screamed in rage. A blast of light from the Goblin’s gauntlet struck the Hobgoblin’s glider sending it spinning. The only thing that kept him from crashing into the side of a building was Nova yanking him off the glider entirely. Cackling laughter echoed around Piper as she roared angrily and leapt at the Goblin, swinging towards him on a webline. 

Neither of them saw it coming as the machine spit out the last bit of lightning. Neither of them heard Iron Man scream as he arrived on the scene. All the two foes saw was each other and a flash of blue white light. 

The tableau couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds but everyone present, from Tony himself to Captain Stacy on the ground directing the police officers, saw it. Spidergirl and the Goblin were caught mid air frozen in blue white light as two identical bolts of blue white lightning struck them simultaneously. They were lunging at each other, caught mid battle. The statues made of light didn’t last though shattering as everything else that had been struck by the light had done. There was a collective scream from all present as the device finally went dead and the light faded leaving nothing behind of the hero or the villain.


	4. Shock

The screams faded and the moonlight lit a scene frozen in shock. Iron Man floated above it still as a statue. Nova was holding Hobgoblin who had gone so limp Sam was almost convinced that Harry had died in his arms if it weren’t for the heaving of his chest. No one was moving. Everyone staring at the spot where Spidergirl and the Goblin had been. There was nothing left, just an afterimage quickly blinked away. The sobbing started from the street, one of the civilians the police had been trying to get away had burst into tears. She was a teenager, not much younger than the others. It opened the floodgates though. Ava raced over to the spot where they should have landed if they had ever landed. It was empty of anything, not even a scorch mark decorated the pavement. 

“No… No, no, no, no…” The chant continued from Ava as she searched for something, some kind of clue. Iron Man landed near her. Friday was doing every scan known to man. Danny took hold of Ava and shook his head at her. She bit back a sob and he pulled her close. He knew they wouldn’t find anything. He could sense life energy, a skill he’d picked up in Kun Lun. Piper’s had disappeared without a trace. She was gone. He felt tears slip down his face as he held Ava close. 

Harry was in shock. He was shaking, his breath heaving out of him as if he was having an asthma attack. Sam set him down on the pavement and he immediately collapsed to his knees. Luke tried to catch him but his hands were shaking too badly. Venom could do nothing but shake his head. Sam was starting to sniffle. 

Within the hour the news was all over New York, footage from some bystander’s cell phone circulating through every news network. Police refused comment. No one could find Spidergirl’s team to get a comment from them. Even the Bugle wasn’t broadcasting against Spidergirl that night, though they did show the footage as well as every other news station. Titles like ‘Death of a Hero’ and ‘Fallen Spider’ circulated like wild fire across the news media. Hashtag Fallen Hero began trending on Twitter as people began to share their moments with Spidergirl, brief though they all were. The Avengers gave no comment until the next morning. It wasn’t Tony Stark who gave the comment like usual though. This time it was Natasha Romanov, and if the world didn’t know the spy better they would say her eyes were red and puffy as if she’d been crying. 

“As per the events of last night, the Avengers were working with the team the media has come to know as the Ultimates to stop the plan of the villain calling himself the Green Goblin. While the Avengers were defusing a chemical bomb, the Ultimates were handling the Goblin and the miniaturized super collider. The Goblin managed to set off the device. Spidergirl managed to destroy the power source. However the device appeared to still be semi active when it struck both Spidergirl and the Green Goblin.” She closed her eyes for a second. “It is my duty to report the official death of the vigilante by the name of Spidergirl, along with the death of the villain known as Green Goblin.” The reporters around her went berserk.

The whole of New York went into mourning over the next week. Stories were told on talk shows across the city, across the world. Flags across New York were flown at half mast. Everyone was wearing a black band of some kind, each with Spidergirl’s mask, some had it on pins, some had patches, some painted it. Everyone was doing something to honor the hero but Oscorp stepped further than anyone. They partnered with one of the greatest sculptors in the world, a Japanese woman who’s sculptures looked so lifelike they almost seemed to breathe, and commissioned a statue of the fallen hero. It was a sight to see. It stood tall and proud outside the main Oscorp building just a few blocks away from Stark Tower. It depicted the hero in her full glory one hand raised a line of webbing shooting from her wrist like she was about to swing off to go fight crime. The statue was larger than life but so realistic it was as if she could really start moving any moment. The plaque at the base of the statue read simply, ‘Responsibility’. 

The funeral ceremony was beautiful, with most of New York in attendance, the streets crowded with people, speakers the only reason everyone could hear the speakers, of which there were few. Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rodgers spoke about responsibility and heroism, how the people of New York could take up the responsibility left behind by her disappearance. As there was no body no one could confirm her identity. No one wanted to know, well some did. But no one asked, it was too fresh a subject. Some people were sure it would come up later, it would be spoken of by everyone who had the tongue to speak. But nothing was the same. Nothing would ever be the same. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was like being trapped in a Jackson Pollock painting. Everything was colors and lights and swirling. The noises were so jumbled it was like walking through Times Square in the middle of the day by herself. Everyone was talking but not to her, occasional noises were louder than others but nothing was really directed at her. She couldn’t focus on anything. Then there was a tug on her neck, was it her neck? She wasn’t so sure, then she was snapped away from the lights and colors. She was back somewhere familiar. Back in that sea of spiderwebs and light that she had been to twice before. But this time she was moving like a comet spinning and flying through space. Before she could truly process what was happening she went flying into a web and everything shifted again. It was like she was being ripped apart and then she snapped her eyes open just in time to throw her arms up to stop herself from breaking her nose slamming into the building that seemed to be flying at her. She shifted in the rubble and contemplated that she was lucky the building seemed to be abandoned before she passed out completely, sweet darkness replacing any memories of what had brought her to this graffiti covered building, she seemed to remember being in front of Stark Tower before this but she couldn’t quite remember, her brain was feeling a bit scrambled. Darkness enveloped her and she lost every worry at least for a while.


	5. Wrong

Piper woke up slowly, still buried under half a floor of rubble. She blinked slowly, her head was pounding, a migraine like she used to get before the spider bite. She hadn’t had one of those in years. But she blinked again and the world cleared a bit. Everything was dusty, even the sky looked dusty blue instead of the regular clear blue. Wait why was the sky blue? It had been night time, nearing midnight when she’d fought the Goblin. The team! They wouldn’t have left her buried like this. What happened? She shoved the largest pieces of debris off of herself. They fell with a crash, dust rising. Piper frowned, why was everything so damn dusty? 

She coughed and struggled to her feet. Looking down she saw that the nanobots that made up her suit were already repairing themselves, giving her only brief glimpses of where her dress was torn. She shook her head and patted herself down. Everything seemed to be in place and the only problem was the ringing in her head and the pounding. The device in her suit, the one the thing she’d been talking to had told her to build whirred to life for the first time as she fell to her knees, intense pain flashed through her. She looked down at her hands, it was like there was a bad satellite signal on a tv. The device whirred and the pain receded. She gasped and choked on air for a moment before she flopped backwards onto the tile of the floor. Whatever that had been she really hoped it didn’t happen again. She wasn’t sure she could take more of that. The device beeped and Karen spoke in her ear. 

‘Environment stable.’ Piper stared down at the device. 

“Karen! Can you tell me what this is for?” There was a pause. 

‘Given what just happened Piper I believe the device can be best described as a stabilizer. It should prevent that painful occurrence from repeating.’ Piper frowned.

“Any idea what that occurrence was? Call the team, maybe they know what’s going on.” 

‘I apologize Piper I can not reach any of the teams communication devices. I am still analyzing the occurrence and can not give any further information at this time.’ Piper went stock still. 

“What do you mean you can’t reach them? They shut them off? Turn them back on, remote access.” 

‘I am unable to reach the teams communication devices.’

“Pull up the city map! The trackers in their watches. I want a location on them now!” Piper was close to hyperventilating with worry. This had never happened before, she had always been able to get ahold of someone, anyone on the team. The city map flashed up and flickered before shifting before her eyes. Piper blinked. 

‘Unable to locate tracking devices.’ Piper stared at the map displayed on the inside of the lenses of her mask. 

“Where are we?” 

‘According to satellite information we are in New York.’ Piper shook her head and raced to the hole she’d put in the building. She looked out over the city. It was New York but it also wasn’t. It was broken, buildings in clear disrepair, there was graffiti everywhere and fluttering in the breeze were a few green banners proclaiming the slogan ‘Obey Osborn’. Piper’s heart nearly stopped. 

“No!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tony stared at the glass in his hand. It was empty. He didn’t like it when his glass was empty. He frowned and turned his head to the decanter on the counter. It was also empty. He frowned. When had that happened? He tried to stand and came crashing down to the floor. He sat there for a moment staring at the now shattered glass on the floor around him. 

‘Boss do you require assistance?’

“Mute Friday.” It came out slurred and he blinked. He sighed and let out a low belch. He pushed himself back to his feet ignoring the glass digging into his hands. He stumbled back over to the liquor cabinet and tried to get it open. 

“Tony.” The voice came from the doorway, and it was very familiar. Tony ignored it. “Tony you won’t be able to open that.” There was the jingle of keys and Tony finally turned to where Rhodey stood in the doorway, holding up the keys to the locked liquor cabinet.

“Give me those.” Rhodey shook his head. 

“Tony you’re bleeding.” 

“Give me the keys Rhodes.” 

“No.”

“Give me the god damned keys!” Tony screamed it across the room as he stumbled towards his best friend, bleeding fists balled, more cuts digging into his fingers from the glass still in his hands. 

“I’m not going to do that Tony.” Tony swung at him and Rhodey caught his hand. Tony struggled but Rhodey’s grip was firm. He peeled the inventor’s hand open and hissed in sympathy. Tony swung with the other hand. Rhodey blocked him easily so he swung again. 

“Give me the keys!” 

“You can’t keep drinking like this Tony. You’re going to kill yourself.” He said it matter of factly. There was no judgment in his eyes as he stared at Tony. 

“You don’t understand. I need another drink.” Rhodey shook his head at Tony. 

“No, you don’t.”

“I can still feel! I can still feel! I still know she’s gone! I need to not feel anymore Rhodey! I can… She’s gone! I can’t handle… I need…” He swung at Rhodey again but his heart wasn’t in it this time and Rhodey didn’t block him, instead letting his bloodied fist smack against his chest. “She’s gone…” Rhodey felt his best friend shake as the inventor began to sob. He gathered his smaller friend into his arms and let him cry.


	6. Feeling Something

Wanda was feeling a little lost. Nothing had been the same since Piper died, she had been a kind of glue holding them together. Steve barely spent any time at the Tower anymore. Her team had scattered. Sam had vanished off the face of the planet, likely literally, apparently he was going back to his old team but he hadn’t said much about them. Ava had left for college, bound and determined to get a medical degree and help people in and out of costume. Danny had left as well, though not to his planned college. A few days after Piper vanished with the Goblin several people, dressed as ninjas had appeared and whisked him away, though by all appearances he had left of his own free will. Luke had moved out, into an apartment in Midtown that he was sharing with Eddie Brock. Eddie had been devastated when he found out what happened. He, Luke and Flash were all supporting each other, sharing their apartment while they each dealt with the grief their own way.

Harry had taken it worst of all. He had thrown himself into his work at school and running Oscorp, running off to Berkley as soon as he could. The only ones out of Piper’s friends who didn’t know what had happened was Mary Jane Watson. She hadn’t known her friend was Spidergirl, she and the rest of the world were under the impression that Piper was backpacking through Europe. They had no idea that she had been Spidergirl. Wanda rubbed her head. Despite the lack of people in the tower these days the feelings of despair had been nearly overwhelming. She had taken to wandering the tower, trying to get away from the sorrow. Being able to sense other peoples state of mind wasn’t always a blessing.

Piper had been a breath of fresh air for her, though it had freaked her out at first she was nearly impossible to read. Piper had told her that it was a side effect of a symbiote, though she hadn’t gone into what exactly that meant. But she was the only person in the tower that hadn’t been readable. All the grief was overwhelming. So the feeling of confusion echoing from the girls old room had Wanda slipping into the now abandoned level. She found Vision sitting alone in Pipers lab.

“Vis?” He turned to her. He was frowning, in his hands was Piper’s pet tarantula, Ben.

“I thought that someone should take care of him.” Vision said and frowned again. Wanda smiled lightly. That was part of what she’d come to love about Vision. He cared quite a bit.

“That’s really sweet Vis.” Vision nodded but frowned again as he placed Ben back in his terrarium. “Are you ok?” Wanda asked sitting down next to him.

“I don’t know. I’ve never lost anyone like this. I do not know how to process the fact that Piper is gone.” Wanda reached out to comfort Vision but before she could Friday’s metallic voice echoed through the lab.

‘Key phrase recognized. Just In Case protocol initiated.’ They both blinked as a hologram flickered to life in front of them. Wanda called out.

“Friday can you pause this!” The hologram froze. “Call Tony down here, he should be the one to see this.” In moments the door opened.

“The hell are you two doing in here! I…” He spotted the hologram and fell silent. Wanda took Visions hands and led him out of the room. Tony took a shaking seat in one of the chairs. “Friday what is this?” He stammered out looking at the frozen hologram of Piper Parker sitting in front of him.

‘It appears to be a failsafe protocol Boss.’

“How didn’t you know about it?” He demanded.

‘There was a protocol in the way.’ Friday pulled up a smaller version of her source code and Tony shook his head at the white weblike code shot through it.

“She put it in all my Ais. Smart kid, wait what broke it? I needed a password to get it done with JARVIS.”

‘The Just In Case protocol is one of the only two ways the protocol can be broken. The other requires the password. This protocol is only triggered in the event of the death of Piper Parker. Should I play it?’ Tony nodded and the hologram began to move again. Piper sat across from him, glowing and shook her head taking a deep breath.

“If you’re watching this well I’m probably dead.” Tony flinched. This image of his daughter was from before Ultron, she was without the scar that had decorated her throat ever since her psychotic AI brother had tried to kill her. She let out another breath.

“I wanted to make this just in case. I mean being a superhero is dangerous. There’s a file that will pop up when this protocol is initiated. It’s got an updated Will in it, fully notarized, thank you Uncle Bruce.” She laughed. “But I have a few requests, just to tie up some ends. If she doesn’t already know someone needs to tell MJ what really happened to me, not the fake story that gets released to the press. It’ll be hard but she’s one of my oldest friends, she deserves to know. I probably should have told her myself but…” Piper trailed off running her hands through her hair. She sighed.

“If I don’t get the chance to tell Harry, he needs to know too. I’m planning to tell him soon but… It’s hard, I don’t want to put them at risk, anymore than they already are.” She let out a humorless laugh. Tony shook his head burying his head in his hands.

“Dad.” His head snapped up so fast he almost pulled a muscle. “Out of everybody I know that you will take this the hardest. I need you to do something for me. Find something, anything worth living for. You are not allowed to destroy yourself over this. I don’t care how it happened, it was not your fault. You are not allowed to blame yourself for it. If you wind up killing yourself over what happened to me I will never forgive you.” Tears were pouring down Tony’s face now. “I had to find something when Uncle Ben died, when you got kidnapped and I had no idea if you were coming back or not. Now it’s your turn. I love you dad, I always will.” There were tears in her eyes too as the Hologram faded out. Tony was shaking with his tears as the room went dark.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Piper shook her head disbelieving at the world that surrounded her. This couldn’t be real it had to be some kind of sick dream. She heard something coming down the hall beyond the rubble she had caused with her landing. She leapt out of the hole and clung to the wall just above the hole. The door opened sending rubble crashing into the hall. Muffled swearing echoed from beyond the debris.

“What do we think happened?” The voice was deep, male at a guess. There was the sound of shifting rocks and the voices grew clearer.

“Could have been Osborn’s men.” Another male voice, this one a touch higher than the last. Piper frowned.

“The readings are all over the place. I don’t think this was Osborn’s goons. Wrong kind of radiation for the V.E.N.O.M. If you weren’t here Punk I’d say it was you.” Piper’s heart almost stopped. Words spoken to her in a space outside of space itself echoed through her mind.

‘Seek out other Spiders, you will know what I mean when the time comes.’ She swore under her breath, well if Madame Web was right then she couldn’t just hang here. With a careful move she flipped up into the room, both hands raised in surrender.

“We should probably talk.” There were three people in the room. Two men one woman. The girl was holding some kind of scanner, one of the men had a bass guitar slung over his back. They were all dressed in spider gear but it was decoratively torn with added vests, the leader of the small group had a spiked mohawk sprouting from the top of his mask. But despite that very odd sight that wasn’t the weirdest thing. As their eyes met through their masks it was as if Piper’s spider sense was dialed up to twelve a level beyond anything she had felt before, save for the one time she had connected to the Web on her own in the Sanctum. Colors shifted and blared and she could tell for sure this time that he felt it too.

“You’re like me.” They both said it at the same time. Piper laughed lightly.

“Like I said we should probably talk.”


	7. A Bit of Backstory

It didn’t take much convincing to get this Spiderman to listen to her. He introduced himself as Spider-Punk, she introduced herself in kind as Spidergirl. He and his two bandmates, as they introduced themselves, led her to a bunker near Queens. Neither of the bandmates seemed to trust her very much but Spider-Punk seemed to at least want to listen to her. They sat down in what could only be called an interrogation room. But no one had put cuffs on her yet. Spider-Punk sighed.

“Start at the beginning, how come you’re like me?” Piper sighed and tapped the spider symbol on her chest, the nanobot suit retracted, leaving her in the dress she’d worn to her graduation. It wasn’t exactly overly fancy but it was a bit much for the circumstances. It was a bright emerald green dress with short sleeves and just a little bit of sparkle. Way too fancy for what was by all appearances an Osborn ruled world.

“Well that’s a bit of a long story. My name’s Piper Parker. I’m from New York, but not this New York. The one I’m from never had Obey Osborn flags.” Spider-Punk nodded.

“Yeah, we’re working on those. So you’re from another universe?” Piper nodded.

“Oh good you’re familiar with the concept.” Punk laughed and pulled off his mask.

“More than I’d like to be. My name’s Hobie, Hobie Brown.” He stretched out a hand and Piper shook it. Under the mask he wasn’t at all what she’d been expecting. He was rugged, though he couldn’t have been a day older than twenty. His dark skin shone with a few small scars, though they were all pretty minor. His deep brown eyes had the look of someone who had seen far too much in their lives. “But really though how’d you wind up a spider?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Come on Harry! It’ll be so much fun! You can’t tell me you’re not excited!” Piper bounced in her bus seat, almost losing her glasses. Harry snorted.

“In fact I can, come on you wouldn’t be excited if we were on a field trip to your dad’s work.” Harry pointed out. A derisive laugh echoed from a few seats in front of them.

“Puny Parker doesn’t have a father Osborn.” Flash laughed at his own joke. Harry nearly rose from his seat but Piper caught his arm.

“It’s not worth the fight Harry.” She shook his head at his friend as she straightened her glasses. It didn’t take long for the bus to pull up to Oscorp. They were greeted at the door by one of the receptionists who smiled at them directing them to pick up their badges. Piper and Harry stuck close together through the majority of the tour. That was until they reached the DNA research level. Piper had a special interest in this level, having recently become friendly with Dr. Bruce Banner when the scientist and the rest of the Avengers had moved into Stark Tower.

“We’re doing some fascinating research here, recently our scientists have developed a set of six super spiders, by combining and enhancing the DNA of these spiders we hope to utilize them for the betterment of mankind.” Piper leaned in closer to the cases.

“What good can a spider do for mankind?” Harry asked under his breath. Piper frowned.

“Um doctor?” She called out to their current tour guide, one of the scientists on this level. The scientist smiled.

“Yes?”

“There’s only five spiders in these containers.” The scientist frowned at Piper’s words and stepped over to the containers. Her frown grew deeper when she spotted that Piper was right.

“One of the other scientists must have taken it out to work on it.” She commented, though there was frustration under her words as if she was often left out of decisions like this. She stepped away from the containers and over to a projection set up. “If you’ll all gather around we’ll watch a quick presentation.” Piper stepped over to the group, only to trip over Flash’s extended foot. Most of the group laughed as the chaperon halfheartedly reprimanded Flash. Piper scrambled for her glasses, without which she was basically blind and didn’t spot the spider crawling near them. It leapt onto her hand as she finally grabbed them and shoved them back onto her face. As she made to stand a sharp pain lanced into her hand and she swore under her breath. Glancing down at it she spotted a spider on the back of her hand. She shook her hand sending the offending arachnid flying.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“But it was too late, it had already bitten me. Three years later here I am.” Hobie nodded.

“Damn, that’s… not how it happened to me.” He commented lightly.

“How’d you wind up a wall crawler?” Piper asked. They had migrated from the interrogation room to something that served as a kitchen, it was a bit sparce but for a bunker kitchen it could have been worse.

“Well when Osborn was elected president…”

“Wait Norman Osborn was elected president! That’s messed up.” Piper commented.

“Oh, so you’ve met him?” They both laughed lightly. “Yeah, it went bad fast. He rolled back a bunch of environmental protections and ended up using the East river as his personal radiation dumping ground. I got bit by a spider who’d been exposed. Decided to do something good with it. We got him out of office recently, but there’s still a lot of damage to work through. His V.E.N.O.M. Agents have gone totally rouge.” Piper shuddered at the mention of Venom.

“I’m guessing your Venom isn’t a parasitic symbiote?”

“Well Osborn and his cronies didn’t call it that, but that’s pretty accurate. They’re not too hard to beat, they don’t like noise.” He patted a guitar strung over his shoulder. Piper laughed.

“Yeah, mine doesn’t like noise too much either, though chemistry is better for beating mine.” Hobie shrugged.

“That’s never been my forte. I’m more of a music man.” Piper nodded.

“Nothing wrong with that.” She took the water bottle he handed her. “I’ll be honest though, I’m sort of glad my Norman Osborn just turned into a bloodthirsty insane monster. I really couldn’t picture him as president.” Hobie raised an eyebrow.

“You sure there’s a real difference?” Piper snorted, nearly sending water spewing across the kitchen.

“Well you’re not wrong.” But before they could say more alarms began to blare. The girl from before, Hobie’s drummer, stuck her head around the corner.

“We got a sighting of something big downtown!” Hobie nodded and pulled his mask back on. Piper tapped the spider symbol hanging around her neck and her suit blossomed into place.


End file.
